Windsor bucks trend of declining football participation numbers

Aug. 29, 2013

While football numbers have been in decline for much of the past four years nationally, statewide and locally, Windsor High School has continually had around 100 players go out for football. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

From grown men’s fantasy leagues to Pop Warner dreamers, football may be America’s favorite pastime, but its popularity is dwindling when it comes to participation at the high school level.

High School football participation numbers have gone down each of the past four years, according to data from The National Federation of High School Activities Associations.

Mirroring that national trend are high schools in Fort Collins. However, Windsor High School is bucking the trend with continual strong numbers of players on its football team.

It’s difficult to blame any one thing for the decrease in prep football participation. Among those, though, are the heightened attention of concussions, an increasing number in kids playing just one sport and, at least locally, the lack of a strong program in which players can develop at a young age.

“There’s been some puzzling things,” Fossil Ridge High School football coach Steve Vecchio said. “(I’ve heard) in our (Class 5A) Front Range League, teams struggling to field a JV or freshman team. I think it’s a bit around the state, and I think it’s a bit around the country.”

Vecchio’s SaberCats have about 110 kids out for football, which has been a consistent number over the past few years despite sharp increases in school enrollment (a gain of nearly 700 in the past four years to 2,135 students this year.

Fort Collins, thanks to decreases in enrollment to 1,486 this year, and the same issues other high schools are facing with regards to participation, has taken the biggest hit. The Lambkins will field a team from about 60 kids, seven of whom will play both ways, something largely reserved for teams at lower classifications

Rocky Mountain coach Mark Brook has told his team of 80 that he’d never seen lower participation numbers, Lobos junior Riley Neal said. The school has an enrollment of 1,950.

Poudre, which has an enrollment of about 1,800 students, has been somewhat steady, fielding 90 players this season. But that’s a steep drop-off from the 150-kid teams coach Dan Reardon was used to at a school of similar size in his native Ohio.

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Former Poudre football coach Steve Bradley, who coached for about 30 years, said he could see the drop-off before he retired a couple of seasons ago. Bradley didn’t need the data to accept what his eyes were telling him: Other sports have more pull and student-athletes aren’t playing multiple sports as they once did.

Still, here are some telling numbers:

In Colorado, the number of prep athletes has more than doubled since 1973-1974, when 65,690 athletes were counted by the Colorado High School Activities Association. This past year, 136,143 participated. Last year also marked the first time sports participation among the student body of Colorado reached 60 percent.

Football peaked in Colorado in 2006-2007 at 17,797 players. But football numbers have been fluid, with Colorado hitting 17,000 in 2000 and 2001 before plummeting to 13,000 participants in 2002. Last year’s number of 17,029 was a 300 player gain from the year before, marking the first gain in four years for the state. National numbers for last year were not available.

Meanwhile, nearly every other boys sport has seen steady growth over the past 10 years. Boys track and field, boys cross country and boys lacrosse have all seen linear growth over the past decade.

Why the decline?

Concussion risks are the oft-cited reason for the decline in national high school football participation.

It’s a hot-button issue, and one that has captivated the nation thanks to former players’ lawsuits against the National Football League.

If that’s the reason for the decline in Fort Collins, parents haven’t communicated that to their kids’ coaches. Further, since the concussion hype has hit national headlines, nearly a generation of football players and their coaches have been well-informed of the dangers and proper technique to mitigate those dangers.

“To be honest, I never heard (parents) talking about risk or fear of injury,” Bradley said. “I just really think kids at a really young age are getting pulled into other things.”

“I know I’m going to be on the chopping block for this one, but I wish that wasn’t the case,” Roggy said of kids specializing at a young age. “I think in high school, when kids are 15, 16, 17 years old, they need to experience a lot of things. I tell kids, ‘Guys, get involved in the school. Get involved in as many things as you can.’ ”

The irony here is kids are getting involved in high school athletics more than ever. They’re simply not choosing football to the degree they once were.

Vecchio said he’s been given numerous reasons for kids walking away from football during his 10 years with Fossil Ridge. Each reason is different, each reason is valid, he said. One of those valid reasons is increasing specialization and the worry of injury for kids who aren’t playing their ‘primary sport.

“One of the best-looking kids I’ve seen out on the football field (decided not to play),” said Vecchio, declining to name the athlete, “He possibly has a future in baseball.”

The odd thing about kids worrying about risking injury in an “off sport,’’ is the increase in injury risk from specialization.

“One other thing, too, kids that do just one sport are putting themselves more at risk of injury,” Vecchio said. “That repetitive motion (can be damaging) when the body is developing.”

Although not confirmed with medical specialists, that line of reasoning was given by nearly every coach interviewed for this story.

There are other reasons for specialization. Kids want to push and see how good they can be if they focus on one sport, coaches said.

Windsor football coach Chris Jones said he has seen more and more kids choose a sport early and try and specialize in hopes of earning college scholarship.

“Everyone’s looking for that possible ride,” Jones said. “Bless their hearts, that’s admirable, but I don’t know how many rides are out there for every kid.”

Winning, development programs help

Many of the coaches and players interviewed for this story suggested Windsor’s impressive numbers are the result of having a winning tradition.

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Windsor has made it to at least the state quarterfinals every season since 2009 and that is reflected in the fact the Wizards routinely have more than 100 players out for football despite a 2012 enrollment of 1,035, just below the 4A cutoff.

“We’ve been fortunate because each year we’ve gotten a bit better and we’ve been fortunate to be winning,” Jones said. “We’re reaping the benefits of high numbers of kids staying with us and new kids. What we really like is the influx of kids who have never played and come out and say they wish they had done it all four years.”

A lack of success is one reason Neal cited for Rocky Mountain’s low numbers this season. Among city schools, only Fort Collins High School had a winning football record last year. This year, that number could well be zero.

“Nobody wants to be part of a losing team,” Neal said.

Especially when considering the time, effort and physical toll coaches and players said football requires from a kid.

“Football has become much more difficult,” Neal said. “I don’t think a lot of high school kids can handle that. The intensity has risen, and the passion has decreased.”

Winning hasn’t bolstered Fort Collins High Schools’ football numbers. The Lambkins won the 5A Front Range League title last season and are struggling with one of the smallest teams in school history.

A big reason for that, coaches said, is a lack of competitive football outlets for youth in Fort Collins.

“A big factor is everybody else in the state of Colorado, Pop Warner is huge,” Bradley said. “Here, it’s in its infancy.”

Fort Collins has four Pop Warner teams based on the south side of town. A second Pop Warner organization was supposed to sprout up in north Fort Collins to serve Poudre and Rocky Mountain, but without solid numbers, the organization couldn’t get any traction. The majority of kids play for the city league.

The Junior All-American football league, which the city of Fort Collins operates, will serve about 780 kids this year from grades 3-6. Nearly 500 of those kids are involved in tackle football.

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JAA just isn’t as competitive, Bradley said. In JAA, because of split divisions for large and small kids, the teams can only play eight-man football, something Reardon and Bradley said isn’t ideal for developing kids’ passion for football. Those teams also don’t get the traveling or competitive opportunities Pop Warner supporters say is important.

“If you look at Columbine and other Denver programs, their Pop Warner (leagues) are big,” Bradley said.

Ditto for Windsor, which has no trouble fielding a team of 110 kids despite an enrollment about half of most 5A Fort Collins schools.

Windsor senior running back Wil Dressor grew up on the Windsor/Fort Collins dividing line. He played both JAA in Fort Collins and Pop Warner in Windsor.

Dressor said Pop Warner in Windsor was most helpful in developing his game.

“It’s more like real football,” Dressor said. “We would go to Greeley and play real games. JAA in Fort Collins was still a good program, but it felt more like rec.”

Bradley remembers days when 130 kids would come out for football at Poudre when it was still a 4A school. That was before the trend in specialization, Bradley said. Before that, there wasn’t a huge need for youth football to compete with other sports’ youth programs for kids’ attention.

“Because we don’t have that, kids are committing to soccer at really young ages,” Bradley said. “They’re committing to basketball at really young ages, and they’re committing to baseball at really young ages.”